Tim Alberta Profile picture
Sep 30, 2020 9 tweets 2 min read Read on X
in Frank Luntz's focus group, Ruthie from PA (upper right corner) said she was undecided coming into tonight..... but now likes Biden b/c Trump was behaving like a "crackhead" and made the debate impossible to watch
Luke from Wisconsin (red shirt) says Trump is obnoxious and unpresidential... but that behavior doesn't affect his bottom line, doesn't impact his day-to-day life (like the violence he's seen in Kenosha)
Jeremy from AZ says he's still undecided because he doesn't like Trump but Democrats haven't given him a good reason to vote *for Biden*
Meanwhile, when Frank asks everyone to associate a word or phrase with Biden, the vast majority are positive in nature.... and several people say Biden was much sharper than they expected him to be, exceeded expectations, etc

(brilliant work by Team Trump w/ the senile strategy)
Bob Woodward slides in, asks the group which candidate would put together a better cabinet... almost everyone says Biden.... but several say they'd feel a LOT better if Biden named some key admin figures ahead of time (one guy says he's afraid Biden will name AOC to his cabinet)
Travis from Arizona lays waste to Trump for not denouncing white supremacists/right-wing militias -- "easiest thing he could have done"

Nick from Arizona agrees it was Trump's worst moment -- "why? why?" he kept asking himself when Trump didn't seize that moment
Luntz tells his panelists how bad things were in the debate hall; how people looked shocked and disgusted by the proceedings. He says he's worried for the country, and asks for closing thoughts.

Mike from Iowa: "We all want to be better than this. Please start acting like it."
That's a wrap on @FrankLuntz superb focus group.

Not sure if Ruthie realizes she's become a cult hero.

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More from @TimAlberta

Jul 26, 2023
Dear @TatianaSiegel27

1) I met w Licht on 7 different days

2) I used zero off-record details or quotes, as our FC team can attest

3) His trainer overheard portions of 1 interview

4) Licht is quoted extensively in a neutral context (sorry it wasn't positive enough for you/him) Image
5) In August 2022, Licht himself (not just Dornic) met with me over dinner. They knew I was pitching a profile, because...

6) When you propose to spend months and months reporting on someone—using them as a "case study" for larger trends—we journalists call that a "profile." Image
7) "Two sources," eh? Four people present. One, the trainer, was out of earshot (Licht grunted the remark directly to me.) The other, Dornic, didn't quite catch it, and I relayed the full quote to him afterward. And your piece says Licht didn't comment. So... who are the sources? Image
Read 6 tweets
Jan 11, 2023
Numb. It's no exaggeration to call Blake a once-in-a-generation talent. The guy could do it all—write short and long, edit newsletters and mag cover stories, conceptualize features in the midst of a tweetstorm—and do it with excellence. But that's not what made him special. 1/
Six years ago, I had to tell my new boss something. I was dealing with sudden onset of panic disorder—ferocious, debilitating anxiety. Couldn't leave home. Couldn't make eye contact. Wasn't sure I could practice journalism at all. His response was something I'll never forget. 2/
"Want to compare notes?" he asked me.

So we did. My new boss, a dude I barely knew, became my mental-health confidante. We'd start every work-related conversation by trading stories about our respective struggles. I started to improve. And my new boss was a big reason why. 3/
Read 6 tweets
Jan 7, 2022
Actually, let's use the 1/6 anniversary to smear the cowards who systematically deceived those millions of Trump voters. Their mistake was not invading the Capitol; it was believing these professional liars who were radicalizing them for personal/political gain.

A brief thread:
Kevin McCarthy, take a bow
Lindsey Graham and Sean Hannity, dynamic duo
Read 24 tweets
Oct 15, 2021
If you want to understand the @CNN / @joerogan situation, think of the media as a clique-obsessed high school.

A brief thread:
Rogan is the stoner who does wild stuff, breaks all the rules with with few consequences, and hangs out with shady characters (and some straight-up criminals). Therefore most of us don’t want to be associated with him, even though a bunch of us secretly love to get high with him.
CNN is the pompous rich kid who lives in a bubble. He gets high, too, but rarely faces the kind of accountability he preaches for the stoner. That drives some of us crazy—but we tend not to say anything, because you’d rather stay on his good side. Plus, he throws awesome parties.
Read 8 tweets
Jan 6, 2021
My goodness. Kevin Williamson this morning. Read every word.

"No one who has participated in this poisonous buffoonery should ever hold office again."

nationalreview.com/the-tuesday/tr…
"I have on many occasions criticized the abuse of the word coup in our politics, but that is what this is: an attempted coup d’état under color of law. It would be entirely appropriate today to impeach Trump a second time and remove him from office before his term ends."
"Trump’s media cheerleaders, who like to call themselves constitutionalists & patriots, are no such thing. They are, for the most part, profiteers who will justify anything if it helps them to hold onto one point of audience share as they peddle their various blends of snake oil"
Read 7 tweets
Jan 5, 2021
States administer elections in this country. States canvass. States certify. States appoint slates of electors to the EC.

Once those state results are certified, and EC votes cast, there is no federal role beyond Congress tallying them and the sitting VP announcing a winner.
This is very straightforward. Can members of Congress object to the count? Yes. But objections have historically been extremely rare and narrow in scope. They've also been ineffectual—because federal lawmakers wouldn't dare, with the stakes so high, usurp the will of the states.
This is what makes 2020 so special. The same folks who've screamed about federal overreach and #makeDClisten are now proposing Congress disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans and strip states of their electoral sovereignty.

It would be stunning if it weren't so predictable
Read 5 tweets

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